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Original poster

How do I prove text is fake?

135 replies

ChimpParadox · 12/09/2018 11:10

A girl is showing DDs friends a text that she supposedly sent. It’s a vile text and DD has most definitely not sent it. The friends are believing the girl as they’ve seen the text. DD hasn’t seen the text.
How does DD prove it is not from her?
How does she find out who it is from?
What can be done?

OP posts:

Catzpyjamas · 12/09/2018 22:50

No, you can easily change the date and time.

Original poster

ChimpParadox · 12/09/2018 22:57

Oh ExFury that’s very interesting. I know that if my DD has sent the text, the girl would have shown her parents & school and gone ballistic (and rightly so) - no-one has which speaks volumes. I think school know this and for all I know have told her off but DDs issue is with the friends believing she’d do this. She desperately needs to prove her innocence to them (not really to school).

OP posts:

annoyedofrichmond · 12/09/2018 23:13

Go to the police and tell the school you have gone to the police. Hell, I’d let DD tell the girls that you’ve gone to the police so the liar gets worried and the other girls realise that DD is not taking this lying down.

TrueLoveWays · 12/09/2018 23:17

I'd go to the police as well as school

ExFury · 12/09/2018 23:26

ChimpParadox when the number was given by the father it was the mention of the police that had one of the other girls burst into tears and say that the receiver had asked her to send it.
If you are one hundred percent certain it wasn’t your DD (I was) then I’d make it known to the school, and the other parents that you are going to the police.
Not just for your DD’s sake but if the message was really bad (the one d d was accused of sending was threatening) then you also want to make sure the girl who got it isn’t in danger... (that was my vocal line but I knew she was behind it herself)

heyjude1974 · 13/09/2018 13:21

Interested to hear the outcome of this

winterisstillcoming · 13/09/2018 13:37

If you're sure that your daughter didn't send the text, I'd tell her to tell the girl that spreading lies about people is defamation and your parents' solicitor will be greeting in touch with her.

It might be heavy handed, but if she doesn't stop then a sharp legal letter to the parents will soon stop her. And she'd probably never do it again as well.

SevenOf1981 · 13/09/2018 13:46

This is my field.

If this message is damaging and causing proper distress to your daughter, the police may be interested.

They can seize the other girl's phone and do a download of the apps and chats (where iMessage comes up) as well as SMS.

Your DD can volunteer her phone for a download should she wish and the chats to this girls' number can be seen, looking especially for chats around the time shown in her screenshot.

Deleted data can also be extracted assuming there isn't a lot of deleting going on.

Although, if this girl is showing screenshots of an iMessage conversation when she has an android phone, this is not accurate. Same if she's showing green messages on an apple device if your DD only uses iMessage.

Does this make sense?

WhatIsThisTomfoolery · 13/09/2018 13:59

Don't be daft. If this is what the girl has done then she's going to 'lose' the phone til it's all died down anyway!

Snoopychildminder · 13/09/2018 14:06

I came on to say that you can download free apps that look like screenshots and have fake text conversations saying whatever you want. I realise a previous poster has brought this up already, it’s absolutely astonishing how horrid some teenagers can be. I hope your DD is ok and the school takes this seriously xx

snolion · 13/09/2018 14:16

Pretty simple, speak to the girls parents and ask to see the girls Phone and look if the messages are from your daughters phone number.

mangomama91 · 13/09/2018 14:20

I really hope it gets sorted for you and daughter op! How horrible of her friends not to believe her!
Girls are the worst sometimes!!!

I was going to say, if the girl did download an app to make the fake messages isn't there a way to find out the apps you've used or downloaded?

Snoopychildminder · 13/09/2018 14:26

mangomama yes it will be in her App Store, even if she has since deleted the app, it will be visible.

It’s not a bad shout OP from your dd to get the IT technician from the school involved, they will be able to figure it out.

All the best

FreerOfIcefyre · 13/09/2018 14:32

I wouldn't take this lying down, I would be telling the school that I would be involving the police and that as the messages are not from your daughter you want to see the messages your daughter has supposedly sent for actual content so the police have the full story.

This should be enough to scare the pants off the girl in question. No way would I allow this lie to impact my child especially losing friends.

It will also alert the school that your daughter is suffering as a consequence of someone else's lies.

WoodenCat · 13/09/2018 14:35

Catzpajamas example isn’t quite right though as the fact her text is green and on the right shows it’s from her. If it’s come from someone else it would be on the left and in grey. I’ve just texted myself on an iPhone and I get both the sent and received messages in blue and grey and it’s easy to choose any of them to delete. So the girl making up fake messages would either have needed an app, or has texted herself or has asked someone else to send a message, and she’s changed the contact details to show your DD’s name. That’s why she’s screenshot it as it would revert to being under her own or the accomplice’s name as soon as she changed it back and even if she didn’t change the name back, anyone looking at her phone would be able to check the number behind the contact name and see that it isn’t your daughter.

PattiStanger · 13/09/2018 14:42

I think once the girl finds out that the police are involved you may soon get to the bottom of it

Tinklewinkle · 13/09/2018 15:59

We had a similar issue with my daughter a couple of years ago - she was supposed to have sent an incredibly racist text message but again, the girl was showing a screen shot instead of the actual text message.

School asked to see the actual message so they could confirm the number it had come from was DD’s - but the girl had deleted it.

School were supportive and did believe DD, but there wasn’t an awful lot they could do.

I threatened to contact the police, as sending racist messages shouldn’t be tolerated and even though I was sure it wasn’t my daughter, someone had and we needed to get to the bottom of it.

The girl soon admitted that it had been faked once police were mentioned

Catzpyjamas · 13/09/2018 17:22

@WoodenCat, I made the message green. You can make it blue if you prefer.

annoyedofrichmond · 13/09/2018 17:48

Similar incident with a child of an IL in earlier internet days, the girl had written on a message board in someone else’s name, making allegations about a guy who worked with children...

When told the IP address could be traced by the police she confessed all.

The mention of police seems to be the trigger for confession in some cases.

ThingsKidsDo · 13/09/2018 22:18

Tricky stuff this. I’ve always found that when you hear hoofbeats, think of horses not zebras. Much easier for sender to delete messages sent than other alternates, especially for pre-teens. Before getting on the offensive I’d want to be absolutely certain that my pre-teen DD wasn’t telling me porky pies. Yep read all about how your DD says she didn’t and you couldn’t imagine she could and that your DD thinks school IT would love to get involved. Sorry to say it seems to me that your pre-teen DD is pretty IT savvy herself. And very capable of deleting texts sent from her phone. I’m sure the tRuth will come out soon enough.

snolion · 14/09/2018 05:39

Did you speak to the school or police?

SofiaAmes · 14/09/2018 05:55

Super easy to spoof a number and send a text from a spoofed number. This is pretty rampant amongst the teens. I have seen it multiple times amongst peers of my dd. We are in Los Angeles...it happens everywhere. As others are saying..suggest reporting to the police. My friend's ds was accused of making threatening phone calls to a teacher and another student at his school. His number was logged as the originating number of the calls. Luckily, my friend was in the movies with her ds at the exact time that the calls were supposed to have happened. She reported the incident to the police and their threat of an investigation resulted in the kids who had done the number spoofing confessing that her ds had not made the call, and that they had spoofed his number with an app.

GoatYoga · 14/09/2018 05:57

Does the girl who is claiming to have received the message have form for this kind of behaviour? What are her motives? And has she been told you are going to the police?

FrangipaniBlue · 14/09/2018 06:21

My phone bills itemise every text and the show the phone number of the recipient.

If someone accused me of sending a text that I hadn't it would be easy to prove as all I'd need to do is print my phone bill which would show no text to that number.

The only downside is if it's an iMessage (iPhone to iPhone) these don't show up.

Cauliflowersqueeze · 14/09/2018 06:50

The person receiving it can see the number it’s from though?
Could someone have taken your daughter’s phone and sent it?

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